Declarative configuration of enterprises services

• US 20050021998A1
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Viegener, Johannes, Fiedler, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,565,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, that include providing to a client a definition of an object class representing attributes of a first collection of data elements and a list of possible operations on the first collection, each data element having attributes and possible operations in common with other data elements from the first collection. The method also includes customizing a usage policy of the first collection for a configuration of the client, receiving from the client a first request to execute an operation from the list on one or more data elements from the first collection, checking the first request against the definition and the usage policy, and executing the operation on the one or more data elements of the first collection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing to a client a definition of an object class representing attributes of a first collection of data elements and a list of possible operations on the first collection, each data element having attributes and possible operations in common with other data elements from the first collection;

customizing a usage policy of the first collection for a configuration of the client;

receiving from the client a first request to execute an operation from the list on one or more data elements from the first collection;

checking the first request against the definition and the usage policy; and

executing the operation on the one or more data elements of the first collection.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the usage policy is one of mandatory, deactivated, and read only.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the mandatory usage policy specifies that an attribute of the data elements is supplied by the client, the deactivated usage policy specifies that the attribute of the data elements is not visible to the client, and the read-only usage policy specifies that the attribute of the data elements cannot be changed by the client.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the deactivated usage policy further specifies that an operation on the data elements is deactivated for a configuration of the client such that the first request from the client with the configuration to execute the operation on one or more data elements from the first collection is rejected.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the definition of the object class comprises a relation between the first collection and a second collection enabling a navigation from the first collection to the second collection.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the usage policy specifies a deactivation of the relation such that a second request from the client with the configuration to execute a navigation from the first collection to the second collection is rejected.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing to the client a definition of a module representing a set of one or more collections of data elements, the set comprising the first collection and customizing a usage policy of the module for a configuration of the client, wherein the definition of the module comprises a query on one or more collections of data elements and the usage policy specifies a deactivation of the query such that a second request from the client with the module configuration to execute a query on the one or more collections of data elements is rejected.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the usage policy of the module further specifies a usage of the first collection of data elements from the set, the usage policy is one of mandatory, deactivated, and read only.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the deactivated usage policy specifies that the first collection of the data elements is not usable by the client with the first module configuration, the read-only usage policy specifies that the first collection of the data elements cannot be changed by the client, and the configuration usage policy specifies a third configuration that the client must have to use the first collection of the data elements.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the configuration usage policy specifies the third configuration for the first collection and the third configuration differs from the first configuration such that a third request from the client with the first configuration to read an attribute of a data element from the first collection is rejected.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein customizing the usage policy is done dynamically at run time.

12. A system comprising:

a first computer configured to execute a client program;

a second computer configured to execute a server program; and

a network linking the first and second computers, the server program configured to execute the following;

provide to the client program a definition of an object class representing attributes of a first collection of data elements and a list of possible operations on the first collection, each data element in the first collection having attributes and possible operations in common with other data elements from the first collection;

provide to the client program a usage policy of the first collection for a configuration of the client program for a client;

receive from the client program a first request to execute an operation from the list on one or more data elements from the first collection;

check the first request against the definition and the usage policy; and

execute the operation on the one or more data elements of the first collection.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the attributes of the data elements of the first collection are either accessed by the server program or computed by the server program.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the usage policy is one of mandatory, deactivated, and read only.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the mandatory usage policy specifies that an attribute of the data elements is supplied by the client program, the deactivated usage policy specifies that the attribute of the data elements is not visible to the client program, and the read-only usage policy specifies that the attribute of the data elements cannot be changed upon request by the client program.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the deactivated usage policy further specifies that an operation on the data elements is deactivated for a configuration of the client such that the first request from the client program with the configuration to execute the operation on one or more data elements from the first collection is rejected by the server program.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the definition of the object class comprises a relation between the first collection and a second collection enabling a navigation from the first collection to the second collection upon request by the client program.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the usage policy specifies a deactivation of the relation such that a third request from the client program with the configuration to execute a navigation from the first collection to the second collection is rejected by the server program.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the server program is further configured to provide to the client program a definition of a module representing a set of one or more collections of data elements, the set comprising the first collection and customizing a usage policy of the module for a configuration of the client program, wherein the definition of the module comprises a query on one or more collections of data elements and the usage policy specifies a deactivation of the query such that a second request from the client with the module configuration to execute a query on the one or more collections of data elements is rejected by the first server program.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the usage policy of the module further specifies a usage of the first collection of data elements from the set, the usage policy is one of mandatory, deactivated, and read only.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the deactivated usage policy specifies that the first collection of the data elements is not usable by the client with the first module configuration, the read-only usage policy specifies that the first collection of the data elements cannot be changed by the client, and the configuration usage policy specifies a third configuration that the client program must have to use the first collection of the data elements.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the configuration usage policy specifies the third configuration for the first collection and the third configuration differs from the first configuration such that a third request from the client program with the first configuration to read an attribute of a data element from the first collection is rejected by the server program.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the configuration usage policy specifies the third configuration for the first collection and the third configuration differs from the first configuration such that a third request from the client program with the first configuration to execute an operation on the first collection is rejected by the server program.

24. The system of claim 12 wherein the usage policy of the first collection for the configuration of the client program is set dynamically at runtime.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the usage policy is set dynamically at runtime by the client.